The Create the Future Design Contest was launched in 2002 by the publishers of Tech Briefs magazine to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation. The annual event has attracted more than 15,000 product design ideas from engineers, entrepreneurs, and students in 100+ countries worldwide. This year, Freetouch was awarded a first place award in its category out of hundreds of entrants from 55 different countries.
Judges from a broad spectrum of SAE member companies voted Freetouch's novel touchless interface technology the top honors in its category in the 2021 SAE Tech Briefs "Create the Future" Design Contest.
The competition brought forth some amazing ideas, with honorable mentions ranging from zero energy devices and new materials for folding devices to stretchable nanodevices and early warning systems to detect fatigue in metal structures. A breakthrough technology out of UC Berkeley that could solve the plastics waste problem was named this year’s Grand Prize Winner.
It's rewarding to have our vision for safe, touchless interfaces recognized among such innovative competition. Our team worked tirelessly over the pandemic to bring Freetouch to life, and we're thrilled to have our hard work honored by a panel of such esteemed and accomplished judges from across SAE member organizations.
The contest's principal sponsors are COMSOL and Mouser Electronics, with Analog Devices and Intel as supporting sponsors. Category sponsors include FUTEK Advanced Sensor Technology, Maplesoft, and Zeus.
The contest is produced by SAE Media Group (SMG), which reports the latest technology breakthroughs, design innovations, and industry trends to a global audience of over 1,000,000 engineers, researchers, and business managers, providing the critical information these professionals need to develop new and improved products and services.